The Access to Justice Act

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The Access to Justice Act

The Access to Justice Act 1999 allowed a salaried criminal defence service to be set up in England and Wales. The government's intentions being to set up a nationwide system of publicly funded and managed defenders offices to, for now, supplement current provision by independent lawyers and private practice. At the moment the idea has been put into practice through pilot schemes, similar to the one in Scotland, which started in 1998. From what I have read about the Scottish pilot scheme, it has cost more than double its budget, so why should the government start up the system? The main reason is that they believe it will drive down the cost of legal aid, and put an end to the abuse of legal aid.

The Criminal Defence Service (CDS) would mirror the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which was introduced with haste, few resources, and led to people being overloaded with cases whilst being pressured to keep the cost down. This was discussed in The Times on 24th July 2001.

The easiest way for the CPS to keep the costs down would be to disregard cases that could take time and ones that